My Personal Experience with Agoda.com

Agoda is currently one of the most popular online hotel booking website in the world, particularly in Asia. They have more than 180,000 hotels worldwide and accepts both Credit Card & Paypal payment which make the booking process so much easier.

I choose Agoda for my hotel booking service because of Agoda's competitive lowest price as well as it's best price guarantee policies. Been using Agoda hotel booking service since 2009 and very pleased that I never had any issue with their service. I always receive great customer service over the phone and through emails as well.

Here you will find my own personal experience dealing with Agoda, my tips and tricks to claim Agoda's Best Price Guarantee, Agoda's Rewards System and Agoda's exclusive deals for the members.

Agoda offers reward points for every booking made by their members. We will receive points worth 4%-7% per booking. If our family / friends want to book hotels in Agoda but they don't have Agoda members, we can book it for them using our account; and we will get the points.

We can accumulate the points to get more discounts for our future travel. We can also redeem the points to book the hotel room for our family if we have the same surname. (an excellent birthday / Christmas gift idea: hotel reservation for our loved ones =))

Paypal Account

As I always receive my online business payment on my Paypal account, I prefer to use Paypal balance rather than my credit card.

The beauty of paypal is its speedy refund process. When I cancel / ask for best price guarantee, I always receive the refund as soon as Agoda approves my cancellation request / best price guarantee claim.

Lowest Price - Guarantee

Agoda offers a Lowest Price Guarantee, so if we find a cheaper rate at any hotel booking site / official hotel website for the same hotel, room type, offers, advanced purchase requirements (ie. pre-pay / no-cancellation / free-cancellation, etc); Agoda will match the price to this cheaper rate.

I've claimed Lowest / Best Price Guarantee few times already, and each time it's approved in less than 2 days. The refund was processed and transferred to my Paypal account instantly.

Unbiased Reviews from WorldWide Travelers

Choosing a hotel is a daunting task. As a person who's always in charge of booking hotels for my family holiday, I spend more than a week to search and research for hotels that will be best for my family. All the reviews in Agoda help me to decide the best hotel for my family.

I usually narrow down my hotels preferences based on Agoda's ratings (over 8 means that the hotel is very good and over 9 means that the hotel is excellent).

Customer Service

My experience with Agoda's Customer Service has been great. They mostly reply my emails less than 1 working day. They did not reply my email once, but I decided to call their customer service and they sort out the issue promptly.

I've heard many reviews from people who had bad experiences with Agoda's Customer Service. I never had any issue with them, and they have always been polite and prompt in attending my enquiries.

But my sister was unhappy with them as they never sent her hotel voucher after countless emails. And when she arrived at the hotel in the middle of the night, the hotel didn't have her booking. So she ended up paying for the smaller room, and was so disappointed that the room was not as described in Agoda website. In the end, she emailed Agoda and asked for a refund, in which Agoda promptly agreed and refunded the full amount to her credit card.

Things to Note when Booking with Agoda.com

- Agoda's published rate is usually NOT the final rate as Agoda doesn't include service & tax charges in their published rate. As can be seen below, the published rate is $160; but the final rate is $185.85

- Make sure you book the correct number of person who will be staying. Note that the rate for the same room for 1 person is $9 cheaper than the rate for 2 people

How to Claim Agoda's Best Price Guarantee?

1. We must make a booking with Agoda first. The Best Price Guarantee claim only applies for a confirmed booking.

- The room must be available for instant confirmation at the time Agoda's agents check availability

Note: Agoda does not approve claim request if the Advance purchase requirements are different. For example: I booked a special rate - non-refundable room. Then a week later, I found a cheaper rate at the competing website, however, this website offers a free cancellation. Unfortunately, I cannot claim the cheaper rate because the room I booked has different advance purchase requirements (non-refundable -v- free cancellation).

2. Check these websites: a combined online hotel booking website to check which website offers a cheaper rate and the hotel's official website. Sometimes, hotel will lower their rate / offer more discount closer to the staying date. We don't need to book at these sites.

3. Print Screen the page in which the Room availability, Room Type, and the rates for the required dates of our stay are clearly indicated.

4. Send an email to BPG@agoda.com to lodge our claim with the email template like this:

- Write the Agoda Booking ID in the subject line

- Provide the website URL where we found the cheaper rate

- Provide / attach a screenshot of the page which indicates the cheaper rate (the page that we print-screen on step 3)

5. If our claim meets with Agoda's Best Price Guarantee Policies, we will receive a confirmation email as well as a refund back in our paypal account (instantly) or credit card (usually takes around 2 - 3 weeks).

Tips and Tricks dealing with Agoda's Customer Service:

If it's urgent, call them instead of sending your inquiries through emails

Once, I accidentally booked a hotel room with breakfast for one person rather than for two. A slight mishap, but after I paid, I realized that the booking can't be amended or cancelled. I sent an enquiry and asked them to change the booking from 1 to 2 people. Agoda sent an email requesting extra payments to be made within 48hours; otherwise, the booking can't be amended.

As I initially paid my booking using paypal, I replied their email and asked if I can pay by paypal (since the payment link they gave only allowed me to pay the extra charges using a credit card). One day passed and I haven't received any reply back from them. So I decided to call their customer service and sort out the issue with them. I didn't pay the extra charges on the phone, I paid it online.

Comments

Submit a Comment

You Must Sign In To Comment

To comment on this article, you must sign in or sign up and post using a HubPages Network account.

anonymous 4 years ago

I was delighted to find very good rates for a number of hotels listed on the website. I had used Agoda quite a few times before and was satisfied with the bookings. This time, I choose one of their specials for a 5 star hotel in Bangkok. I went through the ordering process and when I got the email confirmation I found I had been charged twice the "special rate" they had listed. When I contacted them to fix this, they claimed I should have read the final booking page more carefully, that their 'special rate" was an average not the final rate. I requested that they either cancel the booking or change for a less expensive room but they kept repeating that the "special rate" was an average. In fact they were exceedingly rude on the phone, repeating the same information over and over to what ever I asked, as if I was stupid. For example, when i asked the person on the phone, if they intended to do anything to help me, she repeated that that was the average rate listed. She actually repeated that to almost every question I asked. It was worse than a recorded message.